Glass Houses
Glass Houses '''is the first novel in The Morganville Vampires series written by Rachel Caine. Summary '''Welcome to Morganville. Just don't stay out after dark. Morganville is a small town filled with unusual characters - when the sun goes down, the bad come out. In Morganville, there is an evil that lurks in the darkest shadows - one that will spill out into the bright light of day. For Claire Danvers, high school was hell, but college may be murder. It was bad enough that she got on the wrong side of Monica, the meanest of the school's mean girls, but now she's got three new roommates who all have secrets of their own. And the biggest secret of all isn't really a secret, except from Claire: Morganville is run by vampires, and they are hungry for fresh blood... Plot Claire had been doing laundry on the top floor of Howard Hall, the least valued and most run-down rooms in the least valued, most run-down dorm, She had returned to find that all of her clothes had been stolen by Monica and the Monickettes, who had left her a note to tell her that they had thrown all of her clothes in the trash. Claire had become Monica's recent bully victim after she had made Monica look stupid in front of her friends, and some hot upperclassmen. Claire, having no other wearable clothes or money to buy more, decided that she had no choice but to retrieve her clothes from the trash.However on her way, she bumps into Monica and her side-kicks, Jennifer and Gina, who begin to torment her. Jennifer shoves Claire back towards the stairs, but Claire manages to grab hold of the banister and shove Jennifer away. Monica slaps Claire hard for hitting her friend and out of anger, Claire preceeds to slap Monica right back. Monica punches Claire, causing her to lose her balance, while then Gina shoves her down the stairs. The last thing Claire remembers before blacking out, was Monica's threat that Claire would get what's coming for her that night. Claire awoke to find Erika, one of the other non-cool girls, by her side. She helped Claire gather up her things that had fallen out of her backpack and suggested that Claire go to the Quack Shack ( the university's clinic) because she looked "like hell", before heading on her way. Claire was alone and in despair, believing that Monica and her minions were now going to kill Claire. After a quick check up at the Quack Shack to get her sprained ankle wrapped and her bruises looked over, Claire begins searching for alternative housing to get away from Monica. She comes across an ad for the Glass House, and after much deliberation, she decides to go and see if the residents will at least feel sorry for her enough to let her stay one night. After an over-priced strange taxi ride, Claire arrives at 716 Lot Street, where she is overcome with emotions of fear and sadness, and breaks-down crying in front of the house. This is where she first meets one of the Glass House residents, when Eve approaches her, to find out if she is okay. Claire quickly shrugs of any regards to her injuries and tells Eve that she was here to see about the room. Eve, glad to finally have someone "normal" come see the house, shows Claire inside where Claire meets Shane, the second resident, who proceeds to joke to her about her injuries. After food and some jokes, Claire begins to feel more at home in the Glass House however she needs to wait on the approval of the owner and third resident of the Glass house, Michael Glass. Through joking about the possibility of Michael being a vampire, Claire stumbles on to the town's secret when Eve tells her that Morganville is full of vampires. However, dismissing her as crazy, Claire does not take Eve seriously.Giving up on trying to make her believe, Eve simply warns her not to go out after dark unless she's with someone who's protected. After clearing up in the kitchen, Eve showed Claire to her room, telling her it would be best for her have a sleep while she was waiting on Michael - because he wouldn't be up until late and Claire looked like she needed it. After a long rest, Claire finds Michael in the living-room playing his guitar. After introducing himself, Michael tells her outright that she is not eighteen, therefore not able to move in. Despite her protests and pleas, he is determined that she can't stay because she is not ''legal ''and could cause trouble for himself and Shane. Finally Claire breaks down, telling him that if he doesn't let her stay, she'll be killed, to which Michael gives in, allowing her to stay a couple of days until she finds her own place. The next morning Claire joins Shane and Eve for breakfast; Shane is surprised to see that Michael hadn't thrown her out because of her age (Michael had left a note revealing that Claire was under age, and asking Eve and Shane to look out for her) and tells her that Michael must have seen something good in her. The breakfast is interrupted by the doorbell, sensing trouble Eve hides Claire in a secret room in the kitchen's pantry. Claire overhears a conversation between a policeman and Eve and Shane; someone has notified the police to Claire's disappearance from the dorm and the policeman warns them that if they see her, they must contact the police because she has gotten herself into trouble. After the policeman leaves, Eve retrieves Claire from the room and they begin to discuss why the police were so interested in Claire. Claire reveals that the person who assaulted her was Monica, and Shane takes a bad reaction to the knowledge that Monica had returned to Morganville. Eve reveals that, like Claire, Shane had gotten on Monica's bad side - and it resulted in his house being set on fire and the death of his sister. Thursday, Claire spends a little quality time with Shane; playing video games and dissing Monica; however they end up in an argument when Claire reveals her plan to return to the dorm to collect her things and attend class. After having the same argument with Eve when she returns home from work, Claire defiantly storms out of the house, intending to stick to her plan. Eve chases after her and despite knowing Claire's plan to be dumb, offers her a ride to ensure her safety. Claire makes it to her room safely, discovering it had been trashed and retrieves what is left of her things. On her way out, Claire overhears Monica, who now knows that Claire has returned to the dorm. Claire manages to make it to the lobby by using the fire escape, only to find Jennifer on guard. With the help of another freshman, Kim Valdez, Claire makes it past Jennifer and gets outside. However, on the verge of getting away, Claire has a bag thrown over her head and is dragged back into the basement of the dorm, where she is surrounded by Monica and her minions. Under the impression that Shane and Eve were on their way to rescue her (Claire having used the phone Eve gave her to phone Shane, secretly) Claire taunts Monica, angering her causing her to beat Claire up. Monica threatens Claire, telling her that she could make Claire disappear and nobody would notice. Monica then allows Claire to leave, telling her friends that she wants to have fun with Claire, that she would get hers soon. Claire retrieves the phone only to find it has no signal and quickly returns to Eve, who is still waiting in the car. After dumping her things in the car and saying good bye to Eve, Claire heads to class. Claire makes it through the rest of the day without being killed, and returns to the Glass House. Shane interrogates her about her visit to the dorm, but then sensing her angry mood, sets about to helping her make dinner. After a quick phone call to her parents, Claire, Shane and Eve finish making dinner and all four house-mates sit down to dinner. After dinner, Shane shows Claire another one of the Glass House's secrets, the secret room on the second floor. While inside, Shane upsets Claire with accusations that she is lying about why she came to the Glass house, implying that the vampires sent her to hurt Michael. After being fully satisfied that Claire hadn't been sent to hunt Michael, Shane shows her how to leave the room. Claire awakens early the next morning, and after hearing that Michael is still up and playing his guitar, decides to go and secretly listen to him play. A strange alarm goes off, causing Michael to put away his guitar, finish of his beer and go wait by the window. Claire is about ask him what he's waiting for, when the first ray of sunshine hits Michael, causing him to gasp and hunch over in pain. Scared that Michael is in pain, Claire rushes to his side, despite the moment Michael sees her, he protests. Terrified by the thought that Michael is dying, Claire is about to scream for help however is stopped when she sees Michael beginning to grow transparent. Michael begs Claire not to tell before disappearing into thin air. Struck by the realisation that Michael is a ghost and goes through this every morning without anyone knowing, Claire begins to communicate with ghost Michael. After settling that they would discuss it that night, when he returned, Claire pulled a blanket over her and went to sleep on the couch. Claire attended her classes, to distract herself until Michael's return, and decided to stop in to see Eve at Common Grounds, the coffee shop where Eve works. Eve introduces Claire to her boss, Oliver, who offers Claire his service if anyone were to give her anymore trouble. Claire decides to wait on Eve finishing her shift, and uses the time to study. Whilst there, Claire is approached by Kim Valdez, who is mad at Claire for dumping her cello on the ground (Kim gave Claire her cello, in order to sneak past Jennifer) and stormed off telling Claire never to ask for another favour again. Claire is then approached by a strange young man named Brandon, who has a strange hypnotising effect over Claire. Brandon begins to probe Claire's wrist, asking her where her bracelet is and about whether or not she had one, when Claire realises that Eve wasn't lying, that Morganville was run by vampires. Brandon is on the verge of feeding on Claire, when Oliver steps in, threatening to remove his privileges for bothering Claire. Brandon leaves, and Oliver warns Claire that she needs to be more careful. Eve arrives ready to leave, seeing something had happened by the look on Claire's face. Oliver explains that Brandon had been trolling and warns them, that he does not like to be told no. Eve and Claire left Common Grounds, whilst being watched by both Oliver and Brandon, and sped home. Once home, Eve told Claire to sprint to the door, and bang on the door continuously while she attempts to open it. Claire makes it to the door but behind her, hears Eve who has been intercepted by Brandon. Luckily, alerted by Claire's knocking, Shane opens the door and rushes to Eve's rescue, whilst Michael pulls Claire into the safety of the house. Whilst Shane distracts Brandon, Eve makes her way slowly towards the house and into Michael's arms. Brandon lunges for Shane, but Shane dodges, manages to kick Brandon away and make it safely back into the house. Michael warns Brandon that if he or any vampire tried it again, they would stake them, before slamming the door in his face. After checking to make sure that everything is alright, and Claire comes to accept that vampires are real, Michael and Claire retreated to his room to discuss his ghostly status. He reveals that it was a vampire's attempt to convert him, that left him the way he was. Michael reveals that he believes it was the house that kept him alive. He also warns her that there are more dangerous vampires lurking that Brandon therefore she needs to be careful. TBC See also * Followed by: Dead Girl's Dance (2007) * Preceded by: 0.5 "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life" in Many Bloody Returns) (2007) * The Morganville Vampires series Cover Gallery Category:Books